Song: The Folk Process, v2

I suppose this counts as "folk processing" my own song. AKA editing it! I changed a bunch of scansion bits that were were bothering me, though I left the double-length "our hearts sound" in the alternative chorus as onamonepia.

The tune, btw, is pretty similar to Acts of Creation...but not quite (and the chorus tune is different)--as a whole, derivative of a whole bunch of different common tunes. Which fits the theam well enough, I suppose.

To save your friends page, I'll cut tag this one.

The Folk Process Joshua Kronengold Tune: Original-ish

When you're stuck and can't recall the words while standing on the stage,Don't stop to find them in a book or storm off in a rage,Do not scream or shout or call for lines or pound upon your head,Just recall the shape the words once had and make them up instead.

It's the folk process, we do it all the time,We change the words or melody, the scansion or the rhyme,With the folk process, we make a song our own,For music is not made out of a hard unyielding stone.

When I write a song and others sing it back...a little wrong,I am tempted to cry out "What have you done to my poor song,"It may make me wince or wimper, but they haven't killed it yet,For we know our music lives when we can see it's blood is wet.

It's the folk process, we do it all the time,We change the words or melody, the rhythm or the rhyme,With the folk process, we make a song our own,For music is not made out of a hard unyielding stone.

When I hear a song or poem and it will not leave my brain,And I twist the words and sing them back, quite wrong on each refrain,It may start when I mishear a line, or have an evil thought,But once I'm done, my victim justly fears what I have wrought.

It's the filk process--you needn't have fit,For when a song is parodied, it doesn't hurt a bit,It's through this conversation that our music flows around,And through these changes large and small that our hearts sound.

It's the folk process, we do it all the time,We change the words or melody, the meaning or the rhyme,With the folk process, we make a song our own,For music is not made out of a hard unyielding stone.

Those look good, will mull them over (it's not like I haven't changed the song a dozen times since I posted it). The bit I keep coming back to as redundant is my use "wrong" twice, in slightly different meanings, but I don't see a way to change that that's a clear improvement.

... Ok, I've looked them over, and you're right -- they're improvements. Thanks! (yoinked!) (I also like that "can see" gives a more visceral feel).

Actually, what I've been doing lately was throwing in (in addition to the the original "or even change", to use various things fitting into "the scansion" (including that) -- "the meaning" is kinda neat for the final chorus, "the rhythm", etc.

Also, if you look up, you'll note that I changed an awkward bit in the self-filked chorus -- "for when you parody a song" fails the stress test...er, that is, it changes the stresses in "parody" to make them fit the music, which is a poetic no-no. So I changed it; the new line seems good enough, though it will be a while before I stop folk processing it back (and off all the songs I do, this is one I really -should- do from memory if I can :).